I’m trying to find out how companies like YouTube convert videos into the FLV format.
Our company was looking at using Amazon CloudFront/S3 for streaming our video but for the video to be played through Flash it needs to be in a FLV format.
We’re building a CMS that allows our client to upload their videos but then the uploaded videos need to be converted into the FLV format and it seems Amazon doesn’t do this encoding so we need a provider who can, I’ve done some Googling but have only found an American company called http://pandastream.com/ but I’m after a UK based company if possible.
Or does anyone know whether this is even required and whether it can be worked around using Amazon?
I’ve seen an app like www.encoding.com which seems to work with Amazon (e.g. client uploads file to CloudFront, then using Encoding.com’s API we then pull the file from CloudFront and convert it, then we send the converted file back to CloudFront) but is this the best (most efficient) way of doing this?
You can stream any format of video that allows progressive download off of cloudfront/s3, including .flv, and you’ll be able to stream over rtmp in the near future. Most of the comparable CDN providers stream over rtmp already.
Rather than .flv I’d use h.264 mp4 as it can be played back by flash, but also consumed by non-flash capable devices. Encoding.com and heywatch.com will both encode to this (or .flv) and transfer directly to your storage/cdn.
If you want to get a working install of ffmpeg and its surrounding utilities then you’ll need root access on your hosting to install it, plus plenty experience of a linux command line. It’s generally easier to use a 3rd party service to perform the encode.
If you’re looking specifically for a UK company that deals with video you might want to check out http://www.quick.tv